65% of men are doing their families' laundry. Here's why...

Brand View: Is washing your family's clothes the new symbol of manhood?

According to Washmen, an app based laundry service in the UAE, 65% of men are doing their families’ laundry.

Wed 17 Jan 2018 02:15 PM

Historically, laundry has been a household chore more commonly managed by women, and men have not been involved in the process. Some do not even have knowledge of how to operate the washing machine.

Well, men are now challenging this outdated mentality. According to Washmen, an app based laundry service in the UAE, 65% of men are doing their families’ laundry. The tech company has recently shared its latest data with Arabian Business to show that technology is not only reshaping society as seen with Uber and Airbnb, but it is also challenging negative stereotypes or assumptions.

“Since we have started our business, we were very focused on women based on the wrong assumption that our service might mainly attract the interest of married women here in the UAE. We quickly understood that this was not the case. Men were actually taking the lead on sorting out their families’ laundry” says Rami Shaar, CEO of Washmen.

“Our recent survey found that men are proactive in finding “hacks” to simplify these chores with technology.”

Traditionally, customers would send out only their business and formal wear to laundromats. A large portion of the laundry basket at home was not catered to by local laundry services. Washmen launched an affordable solution that would allow their customers to send out their gym clothes, linens and casual wear for cleaning.

Recently, Washmen launched a Wash Everything Bag, a new service that can potentially disrupt the laundry market. For a set price of AED 49, Washmen customers can get all of their weekly laundry sorted.

“We realised dry cleaning and pressing services, were not solving an everyday problem. We focused on winning the other half of the laundry basket that customers wash themselves. Our new process is similar to washing at home as we split colors and wash them separately. More importantly, we don’t mix your intimates with anybody else’s.”

Since its launch, the Wash Everything Bag has been a great success. Most orders placed by men, surprisingly, include both men and women’s garments.

“Men are taking pride in showing their wife or partner easier, smarter and more affordable ways to do a weekly chore such as laundry. They want to prove they can also take charge of their home by bringing innovation to their households through technology”.